Oakland Highlights

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Oakland means Green Day to me.

 

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Been spending lots of quality time with the minions these days.  Life has slowed down as we wait for our move, transition has us in limbo.  This means adventures.  We don’t do bored.

We’ve been hitting Oakland a lot these days.  It’s an easy trip, maybe 20 mins and just on the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel.  These are our favorite Oakland Highlights.

1) Oakland Temple. 

Yeah, it’s a Mormon thing, but can you really live right next to a beautiful building like this and NOT go check it out?  Also great if you need to take some Quinceanera pictures in your ball gown.

The other day we were in the visitor’s center at the Oakland Temple (free, beautiful, educational, friendly, you should swing by when you have 30 mins to kill in Oakland).  One of the missionaries ask Jude who Jesus loves and Jude pointed to a worker dude in a suit and said, “Jesus loves the Prophet.”  Needless to say the guy was flattered.

2.  The Oakland Museum.

This place was closed for years so people forget it exists.  It was my first visit there and I highly recommend.  It’s like a secret sanctuary of interesting culture tucked in the middle of Oakland, right near Lake Merritt.

Another day we went to the Oakland Museum which has a California history exhibit.  And not just the boring Natives and panning or gold stuff!  The exhibit went deeply into the depression where people lived in pipe towns all the way through the freewheeling 60’s.  We brought our own relic with us and Jim was delighted to contribute to our tour.  How many children will be able to say they danced psychedelically to the Grateful Dead with their grandfather who was there through it all? 

Creepy Mermaid.

 

“To qualify for citizenship in Pipe City you must be jobless, homeless, hungry, and preferably shoeless, coatless and hatless.  If one also is discouraged, lonely, filled with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, one’s qualifications are that much stronger.  One belongs.” – OAK Post 12/3/1932

 

Shroom-room.

No utensils with Ethiopian.  Kids were thrilled.

3.  Adventure Playground 

Later that same day we ate Ethiopian food (have you tried it?  I’m addicted.) and went to what must be the most dangerous park in America: Adventure Playground in Berkeley.  This place is like a shanty village constructed by the never never land children.  You can check out hammers, nails, and wood to add on to the already terrifying structures.  You can check out paint and slap it anywhere.  There are no rules.  It’s chaos and dangerous and it is FUN.  I rolled the children down a hill in a barrel. When was the last time you did that?  It’s so refreshing to go somewhere where the kids aren’t overparented and overprotected. 

4.  Daiso.

Berkeley is also home to one of my favorite stores ever: Daiso.  Have you been to Daiso?  It’s a Japanese Dollar store selling the most absurd AND useful products.  It’s on Telegraph at Durant.  Great place to check out, and if it makes you hungry for Japanese food there’s a sushi joint next door.

Corn dog holder, me and Ashley at Daiso

5.  The Fox Theater

Some Guy gave me tickets to Crystal Castles for my birthday a million months ago, so Leslie and I got to see their show at the Fox.  This theater is amazing.  The highlights are the creepy Buddhas and the ornate ceilings.  If you get a chance to see a band at the Fox you should go.  Concert was excellent – Crystal Castles are electropop/goth and everybody dances in the pit.  There’s something cool and kinda scary about being in the middle of hundreds of dancing bodies, but it’s pretty peace and love so it’s not that dangerous.

 

 

Leslie’s got punk in her soul.  What if I stole her little tiny jacket and wore it with my striped pants?  THEN I’d be Beetlejuice!

I’m developing a new appreciation for Oakland beyond the hair shops.  But the streets will always confuse the hell out of me because they just don’t make any sense.  Oh, one more place you absolutely must visit if you happen to be in Oakland:  The Chapel of the Chimes Mausoleum.  It’s this amazingly ornate Julia Morgan building that houses thousands of dead people’s ashes in the most peaceful gorgeous rooms.  Go check it out too.